This application is related to Ser. No. 09/413,915, filed Oct. 7, 1999, entitled xe2x80x9cADAPTIVE POWER CONTROL BASED ON A RAKE RECEIVER CONFIGURATION IN WIDEBAND CDMA CELLULAR SYSTEMS (WCDMA) AND METHODS OF OPERATIONxe2x80x9d, assigned to the same assignee as that of the present invention and fully incorporated herein by reference.
(1) Field of Invention
This invention relates to communication systems and methods of operation. More particularly, the invention relates to adaptive power management in WCDMA systems and methods of operation.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
In wireless communication system, signal fading due to multipath radio propagation severely degrades the performance and imposes high transmitter power requirement. Since the characteristic of a channel changes rapidly, a transmitter and a receiver can not be configured to operate at their optimum performance level and therefore, they fail to exploit full potential of the wireless system. Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) provides increased capacity due to the fact that each user in the system occupies the entire frequency band and therefore there is no waste of bandwidth due to channel spacing. Several systems have been proposed for the third generation wireless system. The most popular system under study is the Wideband CDMA (W-CDMA) system, described in an article entitled xe2x80x9cChannel Estimation for the W-CDMA System, Performance and Robustness Analyses from a Terminal Perspective,xe2x80x9d by B. Lindof, C. Ostberg, and H. Eriksson, published at the IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference. Document 90. May 1999.
Developers of the third generation wireless system in the industry envision crystal clear voice service, video conferencing from anywhere, high speed mobile Web surfing, and thousands of advanced applications right over the wireless phone or handheld PC. Generally, any enhancement to the system that can improve delivery of high-speed data, voice and video over mobile devices along with increasing the battery life are challenging topics for consideration and improvement.
In papers entitled xe2x80x9cSymbol Rate and Modulation Level-Controlled Adaptive Modulation/TDMA/TDD System for High-Bit-Rate Wireless Data Transmission,xe2x80x9d by T.Ue, S. Sampei, N. Morinaga, and K. Hamaguchi, published in the IEEE Transaction on Vehicular Technology, Vol. 47. No. 4, Pp. 1134-1147, November 1998, pages 1134-1147, and xe2x80x9cAdaptive Coding and Processing Gain Control with Channel Activation for Multimedia DS/CDMA System,xe2x80x9d by S. Abeta, S. Sampei, and N. Morinaga, published in IEICE Transaction on Communication, Vol. E80-B, No. 4. April 1997, pages 581-583; the authors propose a symbol rate, gain and coding change scheme through the use of feedback transmission of the information from the Base Station (BS) to the Mobile Station (MS). In these proposals, the quality of the channel was determined on the basis of the calculation of the short-term signal to interference ratio C/(N0+I0) at the BS receiver, where C is Signal Power; NO is AWGN Power, and IO is Interference from other users. However, in a wideband environment, due to the presence of Inter-Symbol Interference (ISI), the short term Signal To Noise Ratio (SNR) is inadequate for measuring the quality of the channel, as described in an article entitled xe2x80x9cUpper-bound Performance of a Wideband Burst-by-Burst Adaptive Modem,xe2x80x9d by C. H. Wong, and L. Hanzo, published in the IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference. Document 483. May 1999.
Other prior art related to WCDMA systems with improved performance include:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,822,318 to E. Tiedemann, Jr. et al., issued Oct. 13, 1998 (Tiedemann) discloses a method and apparatus for controlling transmission power in a variable rate communication system. The method disclosed provides for a closed loop power control method. A first remote station controls the transmission power of a second remote station by transmitting a rate dependent power control signal to the second remote communications system. Since only the second communications system knows its transmission rate a priori, it must determine a course of action in accordance with both the received power control signal and the knowledge of its transmission rate.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,715,526 to L. A. Weaver, Jr., et al., issued Feb. 3, 1998, (Weaver) discloses an apparatus and method for controlling a final transmit power, Y of a base station in a cellular communications system that has several channels. The base station has a transmitter power tracking gain; xe2x80x98Yxe2x80x99 and a radio frequency transmit power, xe2x80x98Wxe2x80x99. The apparatus comprises channel elements for calculating expected power Pk,axe2x88x92Pkf, each of which corresponds to a channel. The apparatus also comprises a transceiver system controller (BTSC) for generating a desired output power, Yd of the base station, including an adder for summing the expected powers. The apparatus also includes a transmit power detector for measuring xe2x80x98Yxe2x80x99 to obtain the measured transmit power. The apparatus further comprises a radio frequency interface card (RFIC) for generating xe2x80x98Yxe2x80x99. Finally, the apparatus includes a gain unit for processing xe2x80x98Yxe2x80x99 and xe2x80x98Wxe2x80x99 to obtain the final transmitted power, xe2x80x98Y.xe2x80x99
U.S. Pat. No. 5,383,219 to C. E. Wheatley, III, et al., (Wheatley) issued Jan. 17, 1995, discloses a power control process which enables a mobile radio telephone to continuously update the base station on the power output required. The base station sends a frame to the mobile at a particular rate. If the mobile received and decoded the frame correctly, the mobile sets a power control bit in the next frame to be transmitted to the base station. Based on the error rate of the received power control bits, the base station determines whether to increase or decrease the transmit power.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,729,557 to S. H. Gardner, et al, issued Mar. 17, 1998, (Gardner) discloses a method and apparatus for using multiple code rates for forward error correction in a cellular digital radio communication system. Each base station broadcasts a quantity called the power product (PP) which is equal to the base transmit power, PBT multiplied by the power level received at the base station, PBR. For a mobile unit to determine it""s appropriate transmit power, PMT requires measuring the power received, PMR at the mobile unit and performing a calculation. When the channel path loss is large it is possible that the power control calculation will return a value greater than the maximum transmit power capability of the mobile unit. In such case, the mobile unit selects a lower code rate. The base station receiver sensitivity improves as the code rate decreases, so the result is similar to increasing the transmit power. In the preferred embodiment, the invention uses three different code rates. In most cases, the code rate used is two-thirds, but when a mobile unit determines that it needs more transmit power than it is capable of providing, the code range is changed to one-half, and in severe cases the code rate is changed to one-third.
JP6-276176 to Tetsuyoshi et al, published Sep. 30, 1994 (Tetsuyoshi) discloses reducing intra-signal interference at the time of demodulating signals from respective remote stations by preparing plural chip rates and appropriately allocating them for the respective remote stations. When the power level of reception signals initially detected by reception power detection or the signals from remote stations, a chip rate deciding circuit judges that the reception power level causes strong interference and the inverse spread demodulation of the signals. The present chip rate in this case is changed and the remote station is informed from a chip rate informing circuit. In a remote station a spreading code is generated corresponding to the chip rate informed from the base station. A spreading code is generated supplied to a spectrum spread modulation part to perform spread spectrum spread modulation and transmitted to the base station. Thus, the base station performs an inverse spread processing by the chip rate and interference is reduced at the remote stations.
In prior art systems, past estimates of the signal to interference ratio are used to adjust the transmitter power. Due to the fading of the wireless channels, past estimates of the received SNR is not an adequate technique for optimum power control. None of the prior art uses future prediction of the channel power and based on the channel probability density function to set the optimum threshold to control transmitter gain and rate as in the present invention.
An object of the invention is a communication system such as a WCDMA system and method of operation having adaptive modulation for improved system throughput, channel capacity and transmit power control.
Another object is a WCDMA system and method of operation using channel prediction and Seamless Rate Change(SRC)/Transmit Power Control(TPC) logic for power and rate management.
Another object is a WCDMA system and method of operation with improved adaptive power management using the transmitter power control bits in WCDMA transmit slots.
Another object is a WCDMA system and method of operation with improved adaptive power management using pilot bits for adaptive transmitter diversity.
These and other objects, features and advantages are achieved in a WCDMA system and method which maximizes throughput, control channel capacity/transmit power and maintains connectivity between a base and a mobile station using:(i) Channel prediction and SRC/TPC logic; (ii) Transmitter Power Control bits in WCDMA transmitter slots and (iii) Adaptive Transmitter Diversity (ADT). A base or mobile transmitter includes a pilot channel, which transmits control and power control signals between a mobile station and the base station to reconfigure the transmitter according to predicted future attenuation of the channel power and its probability density function (pdf). The information signals are encoded using a one-half Viterbi encoder and interleaved. The interleaved data bits are mapped using Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) modulation. The QPSK data is multiplexed with the pilot channel and spread by an appropriate orthogonal code and long code corresponding to the orthogonal code length negotiated at call establishment. The output of the transmitter is provided to diverse antennas for reliable communications to the receiver. The forward and reverse system receivers are substantially similar. Data is received at two diverse antennas. The outputs are provided to matched filters which supply a coherent rake receiver and a channel prediction system at the base station. The future attenuation of the channel for several milliseconds is determined by the channel prediction system. In one embodiment, a Seamless Rate Change (SRC)/Transmit Power Control (TPC) logic uses the predicted channel power and sets appropriate thresholds to signal both the transmitter and receiver to reconfigure the transmit rate or power. In this case, according to the set thresholds both the transmitter and the receiver at the beginning of each WCDMA slot, modify its transmit rate when the predicted channel power level lies within a threshold level. The dedicated pilot channel is used to signal the mobile station or the base station for the SRC modification. The SRC/TPC logic also inputs the coherent rate receiver to synchronize the receiver with the new rate and provide an output to a QPSK demodulator, after which the data is de-interleaved and provided to a Viterbi decoder for reliable communication in providing an output signal. In another embodiment, the transmitter power control bits are entered in the transmitted slots according to the predicted channel power thresholds mentioned above. When the predicted channel power falls below a threshold level, a pre-determined level increases the transmitter power. When the predicted channel power is above a threshold, the predetermined level reduces the transmitter power. In still another embodiment, the base station transmits the predicted channel power of two diverse antennas to the mobile station. The mobile station compares the power values of the two channels to the thresholds and selects the antenna that propagates through the better channel path, which reduces Multi Access Interference (MAI) and Inter-Symbol Interference (ISI). The three embodiments aid a WCDMA system in maintaining conductivity; minimizing mobile station power consumption by optimizing transmitter power or transmitter antenna diversity; and provide transmitter and receiver reconditioning and capacity improvement.